ACTS OF BRAVERY: As they filed into a film premiere Thursday night in Paris, guests were handed a white shopping bag containing a small bottle of Evian and a packet of Kleenex.

A long, emotionally wrenching documentary awaited them: “Brave Miss World,” charting the painful yet inspiring recovery of Israeli model Linor Abargil, who was raped six weeks before she was crowned Miss World in 1998, and who would go on to become a high-profile campaigner against sexual assault. The film relates how women in South Africa are more likely to be raped than educated, and how elite American colleges ignore an epidemic of violence against female students.

The screening was hosted by Kering chief executive François-Henri Pinault ahead of International Women’s Day on Saturday, and five years after the French fashion conglomerate established its foundation for women’s dignity and rights. Pinault noted more than 140,000 women had benefited from the Kering Foundation’s support, and said films like “Brave Miss World,” making its European debut, help sensitize the public to an urgent issue.